Book 1 of Scavengers: Hollowed Oaks, Poison Berries, and Sugar Canes
by Reine Clara
Summary: Sugarpaw's super excited to finally be an apprentice. He's not that much excited for the chores, fighting, or hunting, but to be next to his best friend, Purplepaw, who's very strange. A very strange cat indeed. And he never notices Breathkit staring at him with fondness from the nursery. Or that he's been staring at him like that ever since both of them were born at the same time.
1. Names

**Minuitclan**

 **Leader~** Stingstar - light cream tabby with brown eyes and a striped tail

 **Deputy~** Flameheart - fire-red tom with blue eyes

 **Medicine Cat~** Fallingleaves - tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

 **Warriors~** Fallenmoon - gray she-cat with brown eyes  
 _Apprentice is Owlpaw_

Stringtail - brown tom with green eyes, got his name because his tail is stringy, with bits of it missing

Flyingsparrow - fast black tom with blue eyes, longest leaper and fastest warrior  
 _Apprentice is Désireuxpaw_

Duskfire - dark gray she-cat with red eyes

Silenthare - light gray tom with brown eyes, barely talks  
 _Apprentice is Purplepaw  
Hushedbrook is his sister_

Hollowtree - tortoiseshell tabby with brown eyes, has a good sense of humor  
 _Apprentice is Sugarpaw_

Midnightcry - black tom with blue eyes, is mostly active at night

Oceanwind - sandy she-cat with blue eyes, loves the nearby beach and often smells like the ocean

Goldenflight - golden yellow tabby-tom with orange eyes, second longest leaper

Sageflower - beautiful light cream she-cat with blue eyes, sister to Stingstar  
 _Had a kit called Oakkit, a brown kit with hopeful blue eyes, but he drowned in the water  
Mate is Stringtail_

Spiritsight - pale brown tom with pine eyes, claims to see spirits but others doubt it.

Coalfoot - dark brown tom with red eyes, paws and tail are coal black

Riverfall - grey-bluish tabby with brown eyes, has white paws  
 _Sister to Moonlight_

Moonlight - grey-black tabby with brown eyes, has white paw  
 _Sister to Riverfall_

Lightcluster - black she-cat with green eyes and gray spots on her back  
 _Apprentice is Mirrorpaw_

 **Apprentices~** Sugarpaw - cream tom with sky-blue eyes

Purplepaw - black tom with purple eyes; used to pick black berries/blue berries with Sugarpaw when they were kits but never washed his fur after, making his muzzle and paws a dark indigo colour

Owlpaw - brown she-cat with orange eyes

Mirrorpaw - gray tabby with brown eyes, looks so uneven gave her the nickname no-Mirrorpaw, which started when she was a kit

Désireuxpaw - black tabby-tom with light green eyes

 **Queens~** Cirenette - brown she-cat with stunning golden eyes  
 _Kits are Breathkit, a light brown tom with golden eyes, Brightkit, a white she-kit with golden eyes, and Dartkit, who died at birth_

Hushedbrook - gray she-cat with brown eyes, just as quiet as Silenthare  
 _Kit is Flarekit, an all too eager gray kit with red eyes  
_ _Silenthare is her brother_

 **Elders~** Lionleaf - pale orange tom with blue eyes

Fishtail - a gray tom with dull brown eyes, tail's end matches that of a fish's tail

Burningsky - once-hyper red she-cat with blue eyes, sleeps A LOT


	2. Page 1

**Chapter 1**

 _Sugarpaw bounced up and down_ , happy to be in the apprentice's den at last, and be next to Purplepaw. His mentor, Hollowtree, stifled a purr. "Wow, I've never seen an apprentice so eager to clean out the Elders' beds!" she mewed. Sugarpaw froze, and turned away from his mentor, to Purplepaw. Purplepaw had been talking to his mentor, Silenthare, but had looked at him amused when he spotted Sugarpaw bouncing. Sugarpaw shivered in his gaze and shrunk away, embarrassed. Purplepaw gave him a knowing all-too-wide grin and went back to talking with his mentor. Sugarpaw turned back to where Hollowtree was but she wasn't there. She was talking to Oceanwind, who Sugarpaw can smell, was just at the beach. He tried to listen in on the conversation the two were having. "- beach was BEAUTIFUL today!" He shook his head in disagreement. Oceans are not where cats belong. "Hey, Sugarpaw!" A voice startled him, making Sugarpaw jump and his fur stick out. Owlpaw stifled a giggle. "I was just wondering if you'd like to share some vole? New-leaf is going good for us right now. Might as well use that to our advantage," Owlpaw mewed. Sugarpaw nodded. They walked to the entrance to the camp. "Where's the vole?" Sugarpaw asked, surprised that Owlpaw, of all cats, would lie to him. "Silly, you gotta catch one," Owlpaw purred. "Oh," Sugarpaw said, embarrassed that he forgot he's not a kit anymore, and he can hunt for not only the clan, but himself. "Hollowtree still hasn't taught me to..." his voice faded away, upon hearing the paw steps of his mentor. "Where are you going?" Hollowtree panted, skidding to a halt in front of the fresh kill pile. "Owl-" "Sugarpaw wanted to catch a vole!"Owlpaw yowled, cutting off, and drowning out, Sugarpaw's words. Sugarpaw shot a glare at Owlpaw, who barely noticed.

"Is this true?" Hollowtree mewed, hesitant. _She hadn't started this early with apprentices, she forgot what she learned and doesn't know how to start!_ Sugarpaw held back from smiling a smug smile. He nodded, instead smiling a fake, but not unbelievable, hopeful smile. She sighed, and waved her tail as a signal to follow her. She lead them both deep into the forest. "A-are you sure this is where we're going? Fallenmoon trained me where the light shone when both moon and sun were gone... And Désireuxpaw was trained near a bed of sparrows. And Purplepaw was trained where rabbit holes were. And Mirrorpaw trained in the water, when it was night," Owlpaw listed all of the places. "Well, when we were kits and not yet named, we used to be let to wander to a place. Of course, our mothers were always watching us while we did. When we eventually found that place, we would instinctively curl up and fall asleep. That's just how we got our names. Of course, Hushedbrook and Silenthare had only found it AFTER they turned to apprentices. Of course, some of us had only been given names from our looks or personality, as some of us hadn't wandered and just stayed in nursery walls. For example, Désireuxpaw, Purplepaw, and Mirrorpaw were named after their appearance. Sugarpaw had walked to sugarcanes he found near the beach," Hollowtree paused to take in air. Sugarpaw was shocked. He felt his ear heat, remembering what he thought earlier. "And you, Owlpaw, had wandered into a fallen owl's nest in the summit." Owlpaw scrunched her face. "I don't remember that," Owlpaw mewed. "Me neither," Sugarpaw mumbled. Hollowtree stopped suddenly, causing both apprentices to bump into her.

"We're here."


	3. Page 2

A long eerie sound reached Sugarpaw's ears as the winds blew through the hollowed trees. Hollowtree's ears flew straight up. "Weird, that sound isn't usually..." "I can't breathe!" Owlpaw squealed. She's lying on her side, pawing at her neck, claws sheathed. Hollowtree gasped. _She can't breathe either, what's happening?_ Sugarpaw, who was behind Hollowtree with Owlpaw in the front, was last in the line. He started to panic. Suddenly, a strong smell wafted over to him. _SMOKE!_ He stopped himself from gasping in more of the smoke and slowly pulled Owlpaw, who was unconscious, nearer to the entrance of the Deep River. Hollowtree followed behind slowly, starting to cough. _The water's gone down, and we didn't notice!_ Sugarpaw exhaled through his nose in the river's water. Then he raised his head and inhaled through his mouth. _Cough. Cough. Cough_. He snapped his head back at his mentor. Sugarpaw tilted his head to the shore. Hollowtree slowly waded in the shallow water and flopped down on the shore. Sugarpaw took Owlpaw's scruff and dragged her to the shore. _I need to get Fallingleaves._ He took a huge inhale and broke through the River's bramble-y door and ran across the clearing, past the brambles and thorns to the entrance of the camp. "FALLINGLEAVES!" Sugarpaw yowled. Every one gathered at the entrance. "What's wrong Sugarpaw?" Fallingleaves looked at him, worried as he coughed several times. "Hollowtree... Hollow oaks... In the Deep River... Fire!" Sugarpaw wheezed. "There's a fire at the Hollowed Oaks?" Fallingleaves gasped. Silenthare and Purplepaw stepped up. "We'll help," Purplepaw mewed. Silenthare nodded and the group of 4 ran towards the Deep River.

Sugarpaw yanked away the brambles with help from Fallingleaves and his eyes scanned the smokey mess before him. "There!" Sugarpaw yowled, seeing Hollowtree's tail at in the water a few tail-lengths ahead of him. Purplepaw's tail touched Sugarpaw's flank, making him freeze. Sugarpaw glanced at Purplepaw, who shot a "ha ha" look at him. Sugarpaw turned hot from annoyance. What was Purplepaw doing? His clanmates were going to die! Purplepaw sprinted through the water, grabbing Owlpaw by the scruff and dragged her over to Fallingleaves. Hollowtree would be difficult though, since she weighed more than all of them. Silenthare padded through the water, grabbing Hollowtree's tail and pushing her in the water. She coughed up water and lazily looked up at Silenthare. She got up and with the help of both Silenthare and Sugarpaw, they managed to get her in front of Fallingleaves. Fallingleaves had taken the time to pick some poppy seeds and had given them to Owlpaw. She picked up one of the seeds and put it in Hollowtree's mouth. "Thank you," she said, weakly. "It's not me who you should thank," Fallingleaves said quietly, but Hollowtree was already asleep. "What will become of the trees?" Sugarpaw mewed, worried he might not become a warrior after all. "Some of the trees are going to be gone. But the tallest, and some of the other distanced trees will be fine. The fire won't spread to the forest since the trees are surrounded by water. It's a good thing they don't have leaves all of the time, so you can be a warrior," Fallingleaves meowed. Sugarpaw looked down at his paws.

 _But I'll still be behind. I'll be with the kits when you are warriors. It's just how my destiny is._

 _ **Why couldn't I be a different cat?**_


	4. Page 3

The next day, Sugarpaw went back to Hollow Oaks to inspect the trees to try and find the thing that started the fire. He closely examined the bark. He went to inspect the next tree when something poke his pad. Two sticks with burn marks at the tips were stuck in the mud of the bank. He slid them out and sniffed them. Just the smell of gunk and water. He started to scrape the mud off when he got purple juice on his paw. Sugarpaw's eyes grew wide and he stood silent as the pieces went together in his head. Fire... Two sticks... A knowing look... A ha ha look... Purple juice... Purple paws. PURPLEPAW! He gasped. He stared at the sticks. He grabs one and pushes it against the mud it sinks. _Quick sand_. He grabs the other one and does the same. No. That can't be right. Probably a two-legs that had berry juice on their paws. He looked at his paws. Still muddy and a little purple. He went back to shore and started scraping the mud off. _Don't mind the purple._ He remembered saying that to Purplepaw when they were kits. And right now, he needed that advice.

By the time he finished with the washing, it was well past dawn. Berry juice was always hard to wash off fur. He looked around anxiously as he padded into camp. Nothing rustled, and the only sound that could be heard was snoring. He turned to the nursery but stopped himself. He was an apprentice now. He turned-tail and headed towards the apprentices' den. Sugarpaw winced at every rustle he made and every sound he heard that wasn't his own. When he was inside the den, he noticed they had already placed moss for him near Purplepaw's bed. He padded over, careful not to step on anyone's tail. He shifted and froze when he felt Purplepaw's tail move to his spine. One of Purplepaw's eyes opened and he smirked, lazily. "Where'd you go, Sugar?" Purplepaw murmured under his fur. Sugarpaw heated up. 'Sugar' was the nickname he used when they were kits, and now, when they were alone. Just like how Sugarpaw called him Berryjuice sometimes. "Just out to check on who might've started the fire," Sugarpaw said, a little too loud. Owlpaw, who slept in the middle of the den(Mirrorpaw and Désireuxpaw were sleeping nearest to the entrance, Sugarpaw and Purplepaw in the back; all apprentices sleep facing the walls,front and back), flicked his tail sharply on Sugarpaw's ear. "Sorry," Sugarpaw squeaked. He turned back to Purplepaw and noticed he was already asleep and frowning. Sugarpaw cast a worried glance at him and went to sleep, despite how terrified he felt of sleeping next to Purplepaw.

 _Light was scarce as he zipped through the forest, finally finding the wide open space he was suppose to meet his friend. He sat near the bushes and waited. 5 heart beats went by, but it seemed like 5 moons. He looked down at the grass and noticed a shadow circling him. Suddenly, the world turned black and he was floating in the dark. He could hear chants in the background. "Tell the truth." "The truth is needed." "Truth." "You must tell the truth." "Clan is always first." He looked around frantically. "I CAN'T!" he yelled at nothing. The chants grew stronger until it sounded like there were 50 cats around him. Suddenly, it stopped and he fell into the darkness._

Sugarpaw woke up, petrified. It was still before sun high. He looked around him, the apprentices were all there, well, except for one. Purplepaw was behind him, and in a heart beat had him pinned to the ground. "What's up Sugar?" Purplepaw asked, sounding like his lazy self. Sugarpaw kicked him off and ran out through the tunnel that lead to the clearing. He looked behind him, glad to see Purplepaw not there.

 _I shouldn't tell Stingstar. Purplepaw can be moved back to kits and I'll be alone with the warriors._


	5. Page 4

The day had gone normally, but it was only Sugarpaw sitting near the apprentices' den while he waited for Purplepaw. While he looked around the clearing, he noticed Purplepaw sharing tongues with Owlpaw. He also felt the heat Owlpaw was expelling. Shocked, Sugarpaw stared for a moment at the two, wide eyed. His heart felt like something stabbed it and all he wanted to do was sleep. He turned away from the two and padded into the empty den, moving his moss away from Purplepaw and nearer to the empty side of the den that was usually used when there were more than six apprentices. He sniffed and lied down. He hoped he could see the Clan beyond the stars again. He had questions to ask.

 _Once again, he is waiting for his friend. He looked up, relieved the bird was gone. But what is this? A trail of purple paw prints heading towards the forest. He must've dozed off while his friend picked berries. He followed the paws and a sudden force hit him. He twisted his body around to see his friend, claws unsheathed. He cried that it was him. His friend. The friend smiled and grasped his neck around the friend's friend looked lazily at him. Then the friend bit his neck, letting blood pour out slowly. The friend turned and padded away. He laid there, shocked and unable to move. Then darkness. A glowing white cat appeared in front of him. "Why?" "You must tell Stingstar. Before he gets away." The cat's mouth wasn't moving but she was speaking. "WHY?" The cat frowned. She leaned forward, planting her nose on his. Memories buzzed by like lightning, but to him it felt like an eternity. He saw all the times Purplepaw tried to off him. Painfully, he was learning the hard way that Purplepaw wasn't his friend. It wasn't like him to believe this nonsense. But the proof was so plain. So obvious. And Purplepaw had tricked him to believe his lies. Tricked all of them. The memories left and he was alone, sobbing his eyes out. He lied to him. I must tell now._

Sugarpaw awoke. He didn't say a word as he left the brambles of the apprentices' den and headed for Stingstar, who was talking to Fallingleaves. "What's up Sugarpaw?" Fallingleaves asked, joyously.

His eyes downcast, he mewed,"I know who set the Hollowed Oaks on fire."


	6. Page 5

**Chapter 2**

"Clanmates, old and young, gather round for the judgement of truth!" Stingstar yowled. Sugarpaw sat next to her, eyes closed. He heard the cats gather and silently sit down. "Purplepaw, is it true you have set the Hollowed Oaks on fire?" Stringstar boomed at him. The apprentice smiled at her.  
"Of course," he meowed, calmly. Sugarpaw flinched. Had he really loved this brute? Silenthare stepped up just as calm. "I helped him," he mewed. The cats bursted into murmurs until Stingstar silenced them. "Do you understand how much pain you have caused to Hollowtree for setting her comfort place on fire, and how much disappointment Sugarpaw feels to have to wait until the ashes fall to become a warrior?" Stingstar hissed at them. The two cats nodded their heads in unison. "Very well. You two shall be escorted to the edge of the territory. Don't come back," Stingstar nodded at Sageflower and Oceanwind. The two she-cats walked, pelts brushing with the ex-warriors. The clan separated and everyone went back to what they were doing. Sugarpaw went to the apprentices' den and lied down on his moss. Why do things have to happen to him?

 _He is standing near the bush again. But all the berries are picked. The juice is on the ground. But it's a strange colour. He follows the stream of juice and finds-._

"SUGARPAW, wake up!" Mirrorpaw shook him until he woke with a gasp. "The kits are getting apprenticed!" Mirrorpaw hissed, running off into the clearing. _What did he find?_ Sugarpaw got up and padded through the entrance until he was amidst the crowd of cats. Next to Stingstar was Breathkit, Flarekit, and Brightkit. Hushedbrook and Cirenette were seated next to their kits, excitement in their eyes.

"Breathkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Breathpaw. Your mentor will be Goldenflight. I hope Goldenflight will pass down all he knows on to you," Stingstar mewed. She looked at Goldenflight and he stood up immediately. Goldenflight took a long leap(as recommended by the leader to show your best ability to the kit) astounding Breathpaw.  
"Goldenflight, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Bundlefire, and you have shown yourself to be an excellent leaper and loyal warrior. You will be the mentor of Breathpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to him."  
Goldenflight bowed his head to the leader and waited until she left to touch noses with Breathkit. Stingstar went on to Flarekit. "Flarekit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Flarepaw. Your mentor will be Riverfall. I hope Riverfall will pass down all she knows on to you," Stingstar mewed. She, once again looked at the mentor. Riverfall, though an excellent swimmer, was also one of the fastest in the clan. She gracefully and swiftly appeared next to Stingstar. "Riverfall, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Silenthare," Stingstar paused. His recent folly had bruised her heart. "And you have shown yourself to be an exceptional swimmer and swift runner. You will be the mentor of Flarepaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to him."  
Riverfall closed her eyes and bowed. She waited until Stingstar left to touch noses with Flarepaw, who was frozen with joy. "Brightkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Brightpaw. Your mentor will be Oceanwind. I hope she will pass down all she knows on to you," Stingstar mewed. Brightpaw's tail fluffed up in surprise. Oceanwind was a strange choice. Stingstar looked back in the crowd, but could not find her. Brightpaw looked disappointed and everyone went in a frenzy to find her. Only when Stingstar turned around, did everyone silence. Oceanwind was behind her, next to Brightpaw. Brightpaw gasped in surprise and fluffed up even more. Stingstar purred. "Oceanwind, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Rippleleaf, and you have shown yourself to be a silent stalker and clever trickster. You will be the mentor of Brightpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to her."  
Oceanwind didn't wait for Stingstar to leave and touched noses with Brightpaw immediately. Hollowtree, Stingstar and Oceanwind were best friends, even now. The clan broke off yowling their names at the top of their lungs.

"Brightpaw!" "Breathpaw!" "Flarepaw!"  
 **Only when the crowd parted, did Sugarpaw notice Breathpaw was looking at him with a strange fondness.**


End file.
